About Eriocapitella rivularis (Buch.-Ham. ex DC.) Christenh. & Byng
Eriocapitella rivularis is a perennial herbaceous plant with a rhizome-like root structure. It grows in clumps, and produces 3 to 5 basal leaves. Each basal leaf has a petiole 5 to 15 cm (2 to 6 in) long, and occasionally reaches up to 25 cm (10 in) long. The leaf blades are divided into three lobed sections, and each leaf is wider than it is long, with an overall pentagonal shape. The plant also produces 1 to 3 flowering stems, each 20 to 60 cm (8 to 24 in) long, occasionally growing up to 120 cm (47 in) long. A whorl of 3 or 4 bracts, often mistaken for stem leaves, wraps around each flowering stem. These stem leaves are similar in appearance to the basal leaves but are somewhat smaller. 3 to 5 hairy flower stalks grow directly from the stem leaves, each stalk 2 to 12 cm (0.8 to 4.7 in) long. Each stalk holds a single flower, which has 5 to 10 sepals and no petals. Each sepal measures 6 to 15 mm (0.2 to 0.6 in) long and 3 to 10 mm (0.1 to 0.4 in) wide. The petal-like sepals are usually white, with a blue tinge on their reverse side. The center of the flower holds 30 to 60 pistils, surrounded by stamens 3 to 5 mm (0.1 to 0.2 in) long, tipped with steel-blue anthers. The fruits are beaked achenes 5–8 mm (0.2–0.3 in) long, ovoid in shape with hooked styles. In its native habitat, E. rivularis flowers from May to August, and each flower is roughly 2.5 cm (1 in) in diameter. Eriocapitella rivularis is native to Asia, found across the Himalaya region, much of South Asia, East Asia, and Southeast Asia, ranging as far south as Sumatra in western Indonesia. Its confirmed range includes North India in the Western Himalaya; Nepal, Assam (northeast India), and the Tibet Autonomous Region in the Eastern Himalaya; India and Sri Lanka in South Asia; and multiple regions of China in East Asia: Gansu, Ningxia, Qinghai, Shaanxi, Xinjiang in Northwest China; Hebei and Inner Mongolia in North China; Henan and Hubei in Central China; Guangxi in South China; Guizhou and Yunnan in Southwest China. In Southeast Asia it is found in Laos, Myanmar, and Vietnam. This species prefers habitats including meadows, forest margins, paddy fields, streamsides, and lakesides. It also grows under alpine brush in the Himalayas at elevations up to 4,900 metres (16,100 ft).
